The State government has asked managements of private engineering colleges to upload details of additional fee collected by them for government quota seats on the Department of Technical Education (DTE) website by August 15.
The government’s decision comes in the wake of complaints from students that they have been forced to pay fees much higher than stipulated for government quota seats in private engineering colleges.
However, while on one hand the government has ruled out allowing private, unaided colleges to charge above the tuition fee of Rs. 38,090, it is also speaking of “deciding what is right and what is wrong” after going through the information furnished by colleges.
Higher Education Minister R.V. Deshpande said here on Thursday that all colleges would have to upload the list of students admitted and money collected under different heads from them on the DTE website by August 15. After this, the government would study the amount collected under 74 subheads (including Internet, library, etc).
“The government in its wisdom will decide how much can be taken,” the Minister said. Incidentally, August 15 is when the last of the seats for Common Entrance Test (CET) rank holders are allotted.
Time to file complaints
Rajneesh Goel, Principal Secretary, Higher Education, said students and parents would be given seven days’ time after the information was hosted on the website to file complaints about any wrong information, which would be forwarded by the DTE to the one-man regulatory committee headed by S.K. Saidapur.
Based on Prof. Saidapur’s comments, the DTE would give clearances to colleges that have conformed to the fee prescribed by the government and would direct those that have violated it to refund the amount to the students. Only after the refund was made would the admissions be approved, Mr. Goel said.
Overturned
The government’s latest decision overturns the earlier move to fix a ceiling for extra fees based on the categorisation of colleges according to the infrastructure available. This was to be based on the recommendation of the previous one-man regulatory committee for professional admissions headed by P. Venkataramaiah, which allowed colleges to collect extra money ranging from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 20,000.
